It was not terrorism. Indonesia’s transport minister told a parliamentary meeting that AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea because it attempted to ascend too quickly and too steeply.  And the cockpit voice recorder didn’t pick up anything that could be interpreted as terrorism or interference.

Just after the hearing, Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told reporters that the Airbus A-320-300 attempted to climb several thousand feet per minute.  That disrupted the flow of air under the wing, and caused a mid-air stall. 

“There’s a possibility of airplane malfunction, a possibility of the human factor,” said Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee investigator Nurcahyo Utomo.  But he made clear that the recorder showed that “there’s no explosion like in MH17 in Ukraine”.

It’s been widely reported that the pilot asked air traffic controllers for permission to climb to avoid a powerful storm over the Java Sea, in between Surabaya and its destination Singapore.  But Jonan cautioned reports, “don’t blame the weather,” without elaborating.  Investigators also want to examine the plane's fuselage, which has yet to be lifted from the seabed.  A preliminary report is expected next week.